If you’re one of the fellowhood of wild berry foragers found on Delmarva, you surely already know that right now is prime blackberry picking time!

With all the rain we had earlier this summer, the briar patches went into fruiting season in great shape and are now pumping out those delicious little morsels of berry goodness.

A few areas have really been lacking for rain over recent weeks and that has hurt some localized blackberries, but it shouldn’t take much searching to find a patch with good fruit.

Go prepared for thorns, ticks and chiggers, with a heavy dose of Permanone clothing spray for the latter two, and you’ll come home with some of the finest fruit Delmarva has to offer.

Don’t think that just because you have your own cultivated berry patch in your yard or down at the local U-pick you’ve seen what blackberries are all about. The wild fruits often have better flavor and can be more plentiful than any tame variety.

Cross pollination among wild types can lead to some truly amazing berries. Of course it may just be that the flavor is intensified by the effort required to pick the wild patches, but either way, you won’t be sorry.

Get out there and get picking!

OC Jeep Week

Can we really be looking ahead to events in late August already?

I guess so, because the annual Ocean City Jeep Week is on the calendar and coming fast.

Set for Aug. 23-26, this is a fun event, and it’s been neat to watch it grow over the years.

The first Jeep Week started out as a small club having a trail ride and show in a Berlin parking lot, but now it’s grown to several days of Jeeps parading down the Ocean City beach and a full house of vendors at the convention center.

People and Jeeps come from all over and it receives national attention, seemingly featured in JP magazine every year.

I tout an auto show only because Jeeps have always been the first and foremost outdoorsman’s vehicle, no matter what a few of my friends with a TV show say about their fancy station wagons.

If you hunt, fish or run the beaches, chances are good you do it in a Jeep and you’ll find something of interest at the OC Jeep Week.

For a full schedule of events, check out oceancityjeepweek.com

Gunmakers Fair

It may be a drive from the Shore, but we’re really not too far from one of the best traditional muzzleloading events in the country; the annual Dixon’s Muzzleloading Gunmakers Fair in Kempton, Pennsylvania.

If you have any interest in building or shooting the old style flintlock or percussion longrifles, this is definitely the place you want to be July 27-29.

If you have a yearning to make your own, you can learn how at the event through numerous demonstrations and seminars, while buying all the wood and parts you’ll need.

If you want to pick up hunting gear like a powder horn, shooting bag or ramrod accessories, you can find it all there as well.

Looking to buy a new or your first flintlock? The best makers in the country will be there.

It’s all topped off by a pleasant ride through Amish country on the way there and back. Get details and directions at dixonmuzzleloading.com.